Following the activation of Space Craft's suppressive method, Soul Compromise, the magic formation began rotating in place at a speed three times as before. Of course, like always, the interior where Nick sat remained steady, while it was only the exterior of the magic formation that rotated.
Space Craft emitted spiraling waves of translucent soul magic power that concentrated at the area where the three alligator magic beasts should have currently been lying. Although the brown gas that emanated from the three rank 3 magic beasts' mouths visually hid them, Space Craft's scouting method, which was the least of its functions and could only be considered mediocre at best, was sufficient to find the approximate location of their souls despite the brown gas.
The translucent waves of soul magic power moved through the brown gas and eventually came in contact with and discreetly seeped through the alligator magic beasts' bodies. The three magic beasts rose to their feet in response to the encroaching soul magic power and more intensely emanated the brown gas from their mouths, trying to defend themselves from the soul magic power, but their resistance was futile. Nick reasoned:
(I am a soul path scholar. Merely rank 3 magic beasts that don't even have very developed souls cannot resist my soul path method so easily. I purposely designed this method to suppress magic beasts of the rank 3 standard while considering my past experiences in fighting them, so my soul path method has the quality of being able to penetrate the resisting magic power of their standard.)
True to Nick's thoughts, the translucent soul magic power mostly passed through the brown gas unobstructed, as well as penetrated the three alligator magic beasts' bodies unobstructed. At the same time, the poison path, brown gas rose to the altitude of Space Craft but only caused superficial corrosion of the magic formation's external armor; the gas could not penetrate Space Craft to affect Nick in the least.
Nick noticed that within a few minutes, the now-thick cloud of brown gas that was spread across the surface of the plateau began to abate slowly. Over the course of the next ten minutes, the thick cloud of brown gas became a thin vapor, and the scene of the three alligator magic beasts lying on the ground with their mouths mostly closed but bleeding through gaps created by their sharp teeth was made apparent. The magic beasts were also silently bleeding from their glowing green eyes, two nostrils, and the ear holes on the sides of their heads. Their dark-brown scales had become visibly paler by this time.
The three magic beasts weakly huddled up together on the ground, but despite the trouble that they were facing, they remained silent as if they had no vocal chords. The more translucent soul waves that came in contact with them and seeped into their bodies, the weaker they seemed to become.
(Compromise Soul works by emitting waves of soul magic power that have infectious, degenerative qualities that efficiently wear down souls. The principles behind this method are similar to the principles of the soul path methods that I used to defeat the jade-green wyvern in the past, as well as to dissolve the part of my soul that was affected by Dean Xavier Gecko's tampering. Soul Compromise is just a more concentrated, directable version of those other methods; this method can also penetrate the physical body, which the other methods that used one soul as the fuel for their magic could not do.)
Space Craft's suppression was so efficient and effective that within twenty minutes of Nick interacting with the three rank 3 magic beasts, they had already been pushed to the edge of life and no longer even moved. Even Space Craft's scouting method revealed that their souls had been reduced many times into being specks of what they initially were. Nick continued using Compromise Soul on the three magic beasts for another hour until their souls finally broke apart, leaving their bodies without souls and barely living. Nick mused:
(Rank 3 magic beasts have a stubborn life force. Even though I straight-up destroyed their souls, their bodies are still alive. If they were rank 2 magic beasts, this would likely not be the case, and the magic beasts probably would have died as a result of their souls being forcefully reduced.)
Nick deactivated Compromise Soul and got up from his chair. He made sure to cast Saturn before walking through the whisper glass panels at one side of Space Craft. Nick hovered on the outside of Space Craft, where soon, he willed for its size to decrease by half and stored it in his newer space band. Nick summoned Hard Marvel into his right grip from the Advanced Blade Works Formation's special space. Nick floated down towards the three stationary bodies of the magic beasts while casting Tyrant Form, and proceeded to use the Cross Stream sword technique to cut up the bodies of all three of them.
Doing so required Nick to perform over fifty iterations of Cross Stream over a period of one hour to get the job done. Nick was not interested in the minced-up carcasses because they were poison path materials, which he had no use for, anyway. Nick, therefore, thought that he would have benefited more from practising his sword technique on them, which he did end up feeling was a worthwhile experience.
Nick canceled Tyrant Form, stored Hard Marvel into Advanced Blade Works, and then cast Tyrant Domain to cover the entire surface of the plateau using its special space. Following that, Nick got rid of the poison path magic beasts' carcasses and proceeded to lay his Absorb Life Battle Formation, starting at the center of the plateau, sizing it to cover almost half of the plateau's land space. After two hours of successfully laying the absorb Life Battle Formation, Nick activated it by speaking its trigger phrase in Valteese:
(Begin.)
The Absorb Life Battle Formation vanished from view in response to its trigger phrase, while a thick, grey haze that resembled fog surrounded the perimeter of the plateau, and then spread outwards a few kilometers in all directions. Nick did not plan to explore Reckless State any further for now because Space Craft was basically almost out of fuel, and he had achieved his goal in coming here in the first place:
(Using four months to find a suitable location is not a bad thing.)
Nick called Joyce using his inter-realm smartphone, and when she accepted the call, he instructed her:
"Joyce, have Ben, Jordan, Tony, and Shawn, along with four other rank 2 Magicians, wait in my workspace on the third basement floor. Make sure that James escorts them there and supervises them until I get there."
Joyce accepted the instructions, and Nick hung up the phone. Next, Nick called Dewy and asked:
"Dewy, have you hired the inter-realm construction crew like I asked?"
Dewy answered immediately:
"Yes, I have. The contract has already been sorted out, and they are now waiting on us to give them access to the location where we are supposedly constructing your fortress. The company is called High Beams, and the team assigned to us has already sent me some designs for fortresses for some reason."
Nick replied:
"Great, it means that they are at least enthusiastic. Have the team wait on the ground floor. I will return to Grand Earth very soon."
Dewy accepted the instructions, and Nick hung up the phone following that. Nick then laid a space path magic formation at one edge of the plateau's surface, sizing it to be about one meter in radius. He mused after the space path magic formation was complete:
(The Absorb Life Battle Formation should be able to remain operational for a few days without being manned. I should be able to leave this place and bring my people here without many problems occurring.)
Nick took some time to examine the plateau's top surface again and also to ensure that the Absorb Life Battle Formation was working normally before summoning a crystal-blue projection stone from his space band. He threw the crystal-blue projection stone at his feet, following which, a blue magic formation appeared after speaking its trigger phrase. At that point, the magic formation glowed with a bright, silver light and enveloped Nick.
When the silver light abated, Nick found himself within his house in Sidon. Nick then used his other space path magic formation to return to his workspace within his company's building. Eight rank 2 Magicians, in addition to James Dwyer, his head of security, were waiting for him within the workspace. Nick immediately addressed his people:
"It's good to see all of you. For the past few days, I have been working within Forgotten Peril to find a location where we will be setting up some important operations going forward. You eight rank 2 Magicians will be instrumental in furthering those operations, so I hope that you will do your part."
The eight rank 2 Magicians nodded their heads silently while also maintaining an expression that indicated their uncertainty. Ben Facey, Jordan Kelvin, Shawn Martin, and Tony Gillies had nothing to say and had no real concerns about Nick's intentions because interacting with him thus far had brought them nothing but benefits, at the cost of their time, but they considered the value that they received in terms of cultivation opportunities greater than the time that they had invested in the company already. The other four twenty-something-year-old Magicians were clueless. James stood by idly since he was there as an escort and nothing more.
Nick proceeded to call Dewy, and when the latter accepted the call, Nick asked:
"Dewy, have the people from High Beams arrived yet?"
Dewy answered positively:
"Yes, a team of five rank 3 Magicians arrived a few minutes ago, and I am meeting with them now on the ground floor."
"Good, I will send up James to the ground floor to have him escort them down to my workspace. I will leave for Forgotten Peril again within the next two hours."
Nick hung up the phone and spoke to James:
"James, I need you to escort the people that Dewy is entertaining on the Ground Floor to this workspace, now."
After receiving instructions, James was not going to hesitate to carry them out. He had already realized what a powerful Magician Nick likely was and planned to put his best efforts into this company for his own sake. James immediately left via the elevator. At that point, Nick began laying a space path magic formation that would be linked to the space path magic formation that Nick had already set up within Reckless State.
When the five rank 3 Magicians belonging to High Beams arrived on the third basement floor via the elevator and walked up to Nick, Nick turned his head slightly away from the magic formation to address them:
"Hello, my name is Nick Capitol, and I will be the one that you will interact with regarding your contract. Give me half an hour, though, before I take us to the work site and give you the proper details."
After saying that, Nick turned away from the rank 3 Magicians and continued with laying his magic formation. The rank 3 Magicians frowned because Nick had not paid them much attention, which was not the usual reception that they received. They soon realized that Nick was also a rank 3 Magician, so their resentment lessened; they then realized that Nick was laying a space path magic formation by himself, and their resentment entirely vanished.
All five rank 3 Magicians wore similar green and blue magicians' robes; four Magicians had a white complexion, while the remaining Magician had a dark complexion. Their hair color was either black or brown, and they all had dark eyes. The supervisor within the group of five rank 3 Magicians had a high nose bridge, black hair, sharp eyebrows, and cold eyes. He turned his attention to James and inquired:
"James, I am a very traditional man, and as far as I know, introductions are usually followed by handshakes and reciprocation. Your boss doesn't seem to be interested in proper greetings."
James rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, using his right hand. He had already been introduced to the rank 3 Magicians, and so he spoke, trying to pacify the man in front of him:
"Charley, don't judge too quickly. Nick is just preoccupied with his work at the moment. What he is doing is essential to our company's survival, after all."
After giving such an excuse, James hoped that Charley Massey, Supervisor within the High Beams Construction Company, would not cause a scene. Charley silently turned his attention towards Nick in response to James' words and observed him for a few seconds before he turned to his subordinates and discussed their own matters using low tones.
Charley and his group ignored the eight rank 2 Magicians in the room, but the rank 2 Magicians took notice of them and became nervous at being in such proximity to so many unfamiliar rank 3 Magicians. Ben, Jordan, Shawn, and Tony, however, calmed down when they remembered that Nick was not a simple Magician. The other four rank 2 Magicians realized that their relative seniors had calmed down and also tried to adopt that state of calm.
Nick spent thirty minutes finishing the laying of the magic formation, and when he had finished doing so, he addressed the entire assembly of people:
"Alright, all of us Magicians will be going to an isolated site within Forgotten Peril. Let me say to you, employees of High Beams, the location that I am about to take you to is confidential, and if you attempt to uncover it or leak it, don't blame me for being ruthless."
Charley openly snorted when he heard from Nick what sounded like a threat. His four subordinates also revealed looks of intense displeasure. Nick was clearly younger than them, and although they should have been at the same stage within rank 3, who the more experienced Magicians were should be obvious at a glance. The older Magicians did not appreciate Nick's tone, in addition to his faint attention from before. Charley released some of his magic aura to indicate his displeasure and to teach Nick a lesson.
An almond colored aura quickly emanated from Charley and flowed four meters towards Nick to eventually bathe him in Charley's magic power, putting a slight pressure on him. Nick's brows creased as he thought:
(This is...psychic path magic, isn't it? Psychic path is similar to wisdom path in that it has to do with the mind, but unlike wisdom path, it does not specialize in deductions or concepts such as wills and intentions. Psychic path is basically a path that focuses on manipulating physical objects using the mind, and so it was far less obscure and much more documented than wisdom path.)
Nick, however, was not deterred and cast Tyrant Domain in response to Charley's show of power. The space within the workspace immediately developed a slightly grey hue, and Charley's aura was almost instantly suppressed by the ambient space magic and thinned by more than half as a result of Nick's targeted influence on the psychic aura. Charley raised both his eyebrows in response to Nick's magic power and thought:
(This man's magic power is extremely high quality, just as high quality as mine, but he has to be years my junior unless he is using magic to conceal his real age. If the latter is not the case, how does he cultivate?)
Charley snorted again, but withdrew his magic aura. Upon sensing that Charley backed down, Nick warned him in a cold tone:
"I don't care about your reasons. If you do that again, I will kill you."
Charley's four subordinates were surprised by Nick's strength. After all, although rank 3 initial stage was a general designation for a range of strength, Magicians at each stage could vary wildly in actual magic power depending on factors such as age, experience, talents, and training. Based on the previous exchange, Nick did not seem to be inferior in power to their supervisor, Charley, which they thought was unimaginable because Charley could defeat all four of them by himself; Nick seemed far younger than Charley, who was in his mid to late thirties.
Nick's own subordinates breathed out a sigh of relief that their boss managed to settle the situation without things becoming unpleasant; they also felt proud that their employer was not easily pushed around. Nick canceled Tyrant Domain and went straight to business, as if nothing had happened:
"Are you people of High Beams ready to do your jobs? I am well aware that the value of your contract is at least £200,000,000,000. Let's not waste time with any more foolishness."
Charley replied to Nick:
"Mr. Capitol, my name is Charley Massey. Like you said, we will endeavor to do our best, but keep your childish threats to a minimum."
Nick shrugged his shoulders and said:
"I will do that so long as you all do what you are supposed to do. It's time to go. Everyone, follow me onto the magic formation."
Nick moved to stand over the space path magic formation that led to Reckless State. Nick's eight rank 2 subordinates joined him on the magic formation without much thought; this was their job, after all. The rank 3 Magicians were skeptical about stepping on the magic formation, though. After twenty seconds of staying still and observing the magic formation, Charley finally moved to stand over it, and his subordinates followed.
While the rank 3 Magicians did not really have a reason to suspect Nick, Magicians who were unfamiliar with each other naturally maintained some amount of suspicion towards each other because doing so could preserve their lives at unexpected times.
As soon as all the Magicians were standing over the magic formation that was about one and a half meters in radius, Nick spoke the magic formation's trigger phrase in Valteese while dismissing James with a hand signal using his right hand:
"Begin."
The space path magic formation glowed with an intense silver light that enveloped the Magicians. When the silver light abated three minutes later, Nick and the rest found themselves standing somewhere that was shrouded by a thick, grey haze that did not descend below twenty meters above ground. Nick warned:
"This haze is a result of my own method; if any person foolishly walks into it, they will probably not like what happens to them as a result."
Charley and his people focused intensely on the haze, and soon one of Charley's subordinates muttered:
"This haze is a soul path...method. It is disrupting my ability to scout beyond it. Is there really a need to employ something like this? What could be worth protecting in this place?"
Nick replied to the man:
"That's none of your business."
The man remained silent in response to Nick's words, not wanting to show any displeasure. He did not want to get into a conflict with someone as strong as Nick.
Nick instructed Shawn and Tony:
"Shawn, Tony, I need you two to man this magic formation that is surrounding this area. I will also need you to teach the others how to manipulate it, as well, considering that you have the experience. You all should treat this as a cultivation exercise for now. If anything goes wrong, I will act to deal with the problem myself."
Shawn and Tony nodded their heads in acceptance, and so Nick touched them both on the shoulders, using his left and right hands to give them each limited control of the magic formation. Nick then sent his eight subordinates away to study the Absorb Life Battle Formation. Afterward, Nick turned his attention to the five rank 3 Magicians, saying:
"I want you guys to build me a kind of fortress in this place. We are currently standing on the top of a tall plateau, and surrounded by violent, fearless, and perpetually hostile magic beasts. Even though you cannot see them because of the soul path magic formation that surrounds us, it is best if said fortress is relatively low to the ground or if much of it is built into the ground."
Charley listened to Nick's words intently. After all, his company only nurtured professionals, and he was one of its best. That is why he was a supervisor, not just because of his cultivation. Charley summoned a few select building plans from his space band and presented them to Nick. Nick summoned a wide work table and a padded folding chair from his older space band and used them to examine the building plans one by one.
The other rank 3 Magicians summoned their own chairs and sat, waiting for Nick to make up his mind on what kind of building he wanted to erect. Sometimes Nick would ask about a particular aspect of a plan, and one of the five other rank 3 Magicians would answer his question. After close to eight hours of examining a few designs, Nick decided on a low-to-the-ground facility that seemed more like a factory space than a fortress, but Nick decided that it would do.
After Nick chose the plan that he wanted to use, Charley calculated in his head and then reported to him:
"Building your chosen facility in this place, assuming what you said about the surroundings is true, I will have to increase the value of the contract to £500,000,000,000. Do you agree?"
Nick agreed without hesitation because he was already aware of the difficulty involved in what he was asking them to do:
"Do what you need to so that I can have a strong base on this plateau. Also, be sure not to cover more than half the plateau with building materials. I will be using the extra space."
Charley summoned a supplementary agreement from his space band and had Nick read it before he signed it, along with its copy. After that, Charley and his team committed to getting the work done in about two months by themselves. After getting that confirmation and deciding on the area of land that would be used for the construction, Nick left the other rank 3 Magicians alone to do their work.
Next, Nick summoned small portable accommodations that seemed like recreational vehicles for each of his rank 2 subordinates. He said a few words to them after that:
"Use the next two months to get familiar with the Absorb Life Battle Formation as much as you can. You will be spending a lot of time being protected by it in the future. I will have you all become more familiar with the Calamity Cultivation Formation after the outsiders leave; follow my instructions for now. Come find me if you need anything."
Nick then summoned a portable accommodation for himself and entered it without saying anything else. He sat on the floor, deciding how he would spend the next two months:
(I have to stay here to oversee the building of my facility and to make sure that the other rank 3 Magicians don't try to go beyond the Absorb Life Battle Formation. During this time, I will do some experiments regarding the rank 3 human souls that I obtained as a result of fighting Austin and his cronies.)
Nick had wanted to do experiments on human souls for a while, but never found the timing convenient, especially since he did not spend much time killing humans, and because on Grand Earth, there were laws against willfully experimenting on human souls. Nick summoned the five souls of the rank 3 Magicians and spent a few days reading their memories. He then made use of his scholar attainment and the power of Tyrant Armor to properly examine the properties of each soul, which destroyed all five human souls after one month of in-depth research.
Nick spent the rest of the time that he was supposed to have available thinking through the properties that he had observed, having thoughts such as:
(Human souls are far more interesting than magic beast souls. For one, they have coherent memories, which, even in rank 3 magic beast souls, are greatly fragmented. Another thing I have noticed is that human souls carry a highly concentrated magic power that should represent the specialization of the person to whom the soul belonged. For example, Austin's soul had a certain amount of wind path magic power imbued in it. The same applied to that other Wind Magician, the Enslavement Magician, the Earth Magician, and the Cloud Magician...)
After going over all that he had learnt from expending five rank 3 human souls, Nick concluded that human souls were generally more valuable than magic beasts' souls in terms of information and residual magic power. Nick's intuition started working a few days into his analysis, at which point, he began having unorthodox thoughts:
(The magic power concentrated within human souls is already fairly concentrated and possesses some essence of the Magician's cultivation because the magic power has thousands of laws related to the magical path that the Magician cultivated. Such accumulation is similar to what would happen within the mindscape as a result of years of active meditation. The soul is also cultivated to have corresponding laws as an indirect result of cultivating the mindscape. The consequence of this is a strengthened soul. Hmmm...now that I think about it, that is probably why humans can get away with not focusing on cultivating their souls as they grow higher in rank - their mindscape strengthens their soul to a certain standard on its own...)
Nick soon had a revelation as a result of those thoughts:
(If I could gather enough souls of rank 3 Magicians who cultivate in one of the paths that I cultivate, would I be able to skip years of meditation by assimilating the laws imbued within the residual magic power? That assumes that I can somehow isolate the laws that I want and refine them, which would preventing rejection after and during assimilation. Where would I even find so many rank 3 Magicians of a specific path, considering that the laws that are etched into the magic power that I am curious about is relatively minute compared to what is needed to nurture a mindscape? Also, how would I guarantee that my mindscape would not be tainted by aberrant magic power?...)
Nick ended up shaking his head and denying the possibility of using such a shortcut, at least for now:
(It is too hard and too risky. Trying to get a hold of so many rank 3 Magician souls as a rank 3 Magician myself is hazardous. Not to mention that one unlucky instance could end up spoiling my own mindscape...)
Nick learnt much from experimenting on human souls, but his conclusions basically gave him no practical advantage; however, he was not discouraged:
(I might not be able to use all the information that I have gained, but that does not make the information meaningless.)
After coming to conclusions derived from his experiments, Nick simply meditated until High Beams' Magicians were finished with their task. This resulted in Nick meditating for days on end without rest. At the end of two and a half months, after Nick had brought all the other Magicians to Reckless State, Charley finally knocked on the door of Nick's portable accommodation.
Nick opened the door, and Charley immediately conveyed some good news. Nick could already guess what it was before Charley finished speaking because he could see the newly constructed facility from where he was, but he let Charley speak, anyway:
"Your building has been successfully built using this plateau's rock as a foundation. We have completed our contract, and after we have given you a tour of it and explanations, I will have to insist that my team and I be allowed to leave this place."
Nick nodded his head in understanding and left his portable accommodation for the first time in over two and a half months.
(I may not have come outside to check on the structure, but I had Spatial Awareness active. It transmitted many images of the Magicians' progress and whereabouts to my mind. In that way, my space path talent was more effective this time than Tyrant Sense would have been, since Spatial awareness has a range with a radius exceeding one kilometer, while Tyrant Sense is only effective over one hundred meters in any one direction.
Nick cast Saturn and raised himself two feet off the ground before flying to his new building. Charley seemingly followed Nick's example, using his psychic path magic. Charley raised himself off the ground and flew beside Nick. Charley's subordinates stood at the steel double-door entrance of the new building, waiting for Nick and Charley.
When Nick and Charley landed on the ground a few feet away from the four other rank 3 Magicians, Charley immediately took the lead and guided Nick, along with his own subordinates, into the building. Nick already received a good enough view of the building while flying towards it via Spatial Awareness and his own eyes, so that he had a good idea of its overall dimensions and external structure.
The building was one story tall, made of a mixture of steel and a kind of concrete. It was shaped like an all-in-one estate, where the entire building was closed off from the outside with hardly any gaps or separations along its total surface area, and it had no visible windows. The building, however, had many caged vent fans on its roof that featured a kind of magical filtration system that persistently glowed green. The building was fairly large, spanning a surface area of over one thousand square meters.
While Charley began the tour, Nick's thoughts suddenly focused on how long, pain-filled, and laborious getting to this point really was:
(I literally spent years being alone while mining for resources, successfully fought magic beasts that someone of my rank and stage would usually have to run from, and had to humble myself in front of stronger magical beings to keep myself alive to get to this point. Life is so full of ups and downs, fortunes and misfortunes, that it is impossible to keep up with the consequences or plan for every decision that I make. I understand now. Life is...supposed to be a bumpy road. There are no comfortable rides for people who are living for their own purpose, but the bumpiness of the road is what produces better circumstances.)
Nick looked around at the polished building that he had struggled immensely for and knew that he was right:
(Without the risks, without the tears, without the loneliness, and without the failures, none of this would exist. I would still be a suffering youth living in fear and being controlled by my grandaunt. I get it...suffering isn't punishment, it's preparation.)